Watch My Dust
by kazumigirl
Summary: My name is Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez and this is my story. This is what baseball is all about. Rated T for language


"Watch My Dust"

Author's note: Before you read, I must warn you that you will get frustrated. I made grammar mistakes and created run-on sentences on purpose. This is from Benny's POV, and I wanted it to be very accurate to the way he talks, so before you ask why it's so jumbled, there's a method to my madness. Enjoy!

It's weird when you're a kid and you think things are gonna stay the same forever you know? But the thing is things are changing all the time all around you and you just don't even know it. Jacob Phillips and I were once best friends. We did everything together. The neighbors said it was hard to tell us apart. I guess this is only funny if you know he's white and I'm not. The one thing we did have in common was baseball. Most kids thought of it as 'just a game' and its not. Baseball is a way of life. Kind of like religion or something. That's how seriously I took it and that's how seriously Phillips took it.

We played baseball every minute we weren't in school or doing chores or sleeping. I think we had our own reasons for worshipping it. Phillips' dad ran off when he was just a baby so it was just him and his mom. It was weird not to have a dad you know? So Phillips took up baseball to make sure everyone still knew he was manly and shit. My reason was completely different. It was because of my father. Baseball is known as the all American sport, and nobody is more American than my old man. He immigrated from Mexico, but even in California where we live there aren't a lot of Mexicans. He married my mom the daughter of a social worker who loves helping people like him and they adopted me from Puerto Rico. I guess it makes sense to both of them. My old man's heritage and my mom's crazy need to help people. Anyway my dad loves baseball and that made me love it. We take pride in our country and baseball's probably the funnest way to show it.

Well Phillips and me stayed best friends and even got into Little League together in elementary school. We were easily the best players on the team but all of the guys were really good. The town talked about us a lot even more than the high school team. The thing is none of the other guys put any heart into baseball. They saw it as a time consumer or way to get chicks to look at them. Phillips loved being around them though I guess because I was his only friend growing up and he started acting like them. Baseball became something to do for him and not something to live for. I thought I could handle it. After all I was still playing ball and still having a good time.

Kenny Denunez was the first to move into the neighborhood. This guy was great. He walked like he owned the street and the way he talked made you think nothing in the world could rattle him. I played catch with him one afternoon while his parents moved boxes in out of the house and it made me feel connected to him seeing his folks. His mom was black and his dad was Hispanic and my parents being white and Hispanic I suddenly didn't feel so weird. I had an idea and asked Kenny to try out for Little League. I mean hell he was good and we could use another guy since Petterson was moving to Boston in a couple of weeks. Kenny seemed to like the idea but when I brought the idea to Phillips now team captain he acted like I was crazy and shit.

"We can't have a colored kid on our team!" He made sure the entire team could hear him.

"He's really good and he ain't colored he's a good ball player!" I shot back not caring who heard. Over the year I'd grown to be one of the tallest boys on the team so not much intimidated me.

"Forget it Rodriguez!" Phillips glanced behind him and I could see how much he loved to see everyone smiling.

I should have quit the team right then and there but I was still kind of dumb. Still kind of arrogant about being the best on the team and the whole town mooning over me. The next kid to move in was Hamilton Porter. He immediately got the fat jokes out of the way himself and told Kenny and me to call him Ham. Ham turned out to be really good too and Kenny and me were happy to have somebody to toss catch and bat with. My front yard was getting kind of small but we didn't care. What I did care about was how much fun we were having and how much they loved baseball without loving themselves. I swear the Little Leaguers acted like they were gods or something.

"A fat kid?" Phillips had the same reaction a NON-colored kid. "You want us to put a fat kid on the team?"

"Robinson ain't that fit," I pointed my bat at our umpire.

"I'm just big boned!" Robinson said.

Phillips still told me no and I was getting angrier everyday. We used to be best friends and now it was getting harder and harder just to look at him everyday. I know he didn't have an old man and felt he had to be a guy but he was being an ass and I hated the way the entire team kissed up to him. Even when he was the smallest player we had.

Right after Ham moved in Squints moved in. We immediately called him Squints because of his dorky glasses and at first he got offended but he didn't cry or anything. He acted like he didn't even care. We were surprised to find out he played baseball but the problem was my front yard and back yard were way to small for four guys. We had to make it work though and even though playing in such a small playing field was a bitch we still had a good time. I didn't even bother asking Phillips if Squints could join. Apparently you had to look good to play good and none of these guys would fit both categories.

Little League was becoming awful. There were only two other guys my size and Phillips bossed them around like they were his slaves. He suddenly wasn't ten anymore. He was our dad or some shit. When we weren't playing baseball he decided what we were doing. Luckily I got out of a lot of it because I played even more baseball with the neighborhood guys. They were so easy to get along with. They didn't care anything about each other except how they played and I liked that.

After Squints Timmy and Tommy moved in. These guys were bitchin. Timmy didn't give a shit about what anybody said about him and Tommy was his shadow so he didn't either. I met them on the Little League field where Timmy was asking if there were any open positions. Phillips looked at him like he was the most pathetic thing he ever saw and said "Maybe for you but not for the runt over there. We're ball players not babysitters."

From my place behind the chain fence I could see this pissed Timmy off but instead of going off on Phillips he just said "That's okay. My mother made me ask anyway." He took Tommy and left. I followed them and asked if they wanted to play ball with us not bothering to mention I was still in Little League myself. We went to my yard which was now way too small to play and we all took positions half in the yard and half in the street. Timmy looked around and then at me like I was nuts.

"I have a better idea." He said and we followed him to his house and then next to his house. It was a huge lot perfect for baseball. Not a lot of grass. Big enough for bases and big enough for all of us. We ended up playing there twice as much as we did when it was my yard and this made Phillips madder than hell. He always had an attitude with me during practice and one day said "Maybe if you practiced with a real team instead of a circus we'd score more games!" Nobody bothered to point out that I was practically carrying the team.

Bertram moved in next and we quickly found a place for him. He was good a former Little League player even and told us he'd quit because the game never lasted long enough. It really made me think about things and I was considering quitting myself. Spring was about to be over and summer was about to begin. The season would be over soon anyway.

Yeah-Yeah was the last to join us. We didn't invite him to play he just found us. That's what I like about him. There's not a shy thing about him and he showed up one day with his glove chewing gum and yelling "Yeah-Yeah! Let's play ball!" like he'd been there all the time or something.

I told Phillips I was quitting the morning before I was supposed to meet with the guys and he nearly pissed his pants. He yelled and screamed and kicked stuff around. He was bitching about how disloyal I was but everyone knew his real problem was that everybody but me played like crap. He didn't say it and none of the other guys pointed it out. I simply threw a bag at his feet my uniform and cleats and left. I guess it stung a little. I mean for a second I thought I saw the old Jacob Phillips staring at me but he had changed and we both knew it.

The Sandlot became our church and baseball was finally my religion once again. Nobody judged anybody. Nobody had a skin color. Nobody had a drunk old man. Nobody had a slutty mom. Nobody was poor. Nobody was rich. Nobody was geek. Nobody was perfect. We were just baseball players and that was good enough for all of us.

Two years later I saw a kid helping his parents unload moving boxes a few houses down and across the street from my own. He looked at me for a minute and l looked at him. He looked away like he was embarrassed or something and then Squints said, "What a geek." I gave him a look and decided to continue the cycle. Just as my old man had adopted a new country and my mom had adopted him and they had adopted me and I had adopted the guys and we had adopted the sandlot…I was going to adopt this kid…and we were going to play baseball.

The End

2nd Author's note: I hope you enjoyed it! The title, by the way, is one of Babe Ruth's most famous quotes. Reviews much appreciated!


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